Unemployment almost 10% nationally

[Royd]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

Royd said: We should eleminate ALL, and I mean ALL govt. subsidies...If an organization or business or lifestyle can't stand on its own, let it go the way of the dinosaur and the horse and buggy, unless you're Amish, of course.

So, no government subsidy to research to eliminate diseases that are not profitable?

No government subsidies to science if it cannot turn a profit in the first quarter?

Fine tightrope there can turn into a noose if it swings too far in either direction.​

That's right. What finer example of science and politics being intertwined, than the recent global warming/ cap and trade fiasco.

If a scientist wants to find a solution to a problem, let them do it in their basement, while they work a parttime job, at the 7/11...Starving scientist, starving artist, no diff...Let them seek funds from venture capitalists, who know that everything is a risk, and are willing to take it.​

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
I am/was one of those middle class folks that lost my job over 16 moths ago, my job was eliminated and outsourced! Over the past 13 years, I have worked as a mental health profession and because the services rendered to people with mental health issues have been drastically reduced, I have had a difficult time securing a position in my chosen field up until 3 weeks ago, which by the way, I had been applying to the company I am now employed with for over 6 months for any and all positions posted, along with 300 other folks! In my job search, I was informed by many service providers that I no longer meet the criteria for employment in this particular field because of the tightening restrictions by medicaid and medicare on the service providers, regardless of my many years of experience! I had attempted to enroll in the local university to attain a higher level of credentialing as now required by law, only to be told that I would have to pay full tuition and there was no financial aid available to assist me as I was making too much money to qualify; never mind my income was drastically reduced over the past 16 months because of the lay off, so I can not afford to return to school! Unemployment was my Lifeline, if it wasnt for those extensions, God only knows what would of happened; probably lose my home, camping out on the beach, and eating at the soup kitchens and we are talking about someone who has paid their dues, worked hard all my life to attain the comfort and securities, (so I thought) of a good life. Today, I just heard that they were stopping all extensions to the unemployment benefits, how devestating! I also recently learned that Congress wants to eliminate mortgage interest paid as a deduction, child care taxes, and God only knows what else! Slowly, the middle class Americans are being eliminated, we make too much to qualify for any type of aid that are afforded to the lower income brackets and with all the benefits the lower income folks can attain, puts them right at the same level of income as the middle class without all the blood, sweat and tears, and with more money in their pockets, therefore pushing the middle income folks out of the picture. They werent kidding when they said for richer or poorer, but who would of thought of it in a universal sense! "They", whoever they are, are trying to convince the American people that the recession is over and is going into recovering, the financial deficit will get better, more jobs will be created, so out of ignorance, we vote them all in, only to find out that we are being deceived. We are not in recovery, we have not seen the worst, it is only the beginning of whats to come! They want to continue or make permanent tax credits for the upperclass and not the middle class so that they can continue to build new jobs (overseas) and resources (that we will have to help pay for with rising costs of utilities, taxes, etc) to build America back up, thats why they need these credits, but if they eliminate the credits for the middle income folks, and put restrictions on the types of jobs we now qualify for, who is going to drive the economy up with the new lower wages employers are offering? There will be no money left to put back into the economy as we struggle day to day to sustain our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter!

Tax credits are nothing but some politician's vote buying scheme, depending upon your economic status, and which constituency they choose to pander to...For the poor, who actually contribute nothing, by way of income tax, we have the Earned Income Credit, or whatever it's called....Basically, it's free money, taken from someone who made more and given to those who didn't...For people who buy into the McMansion, 3 car, 2.25 kids, 1.5 dogs and 2 cats, and may I add, run in circles, until you die of stress lifestyle, you have the mortgage deduction.

Get over it. Get rid of it all, and figure out a totally equitable way to fund the NECESSARY public functions...Study the Fair Tax.

ETA: and take away the power of the federal govt. over every one of our lives...Do you want to be free or do you just want to be a mindless cog inside of a machine, just grinding away, for the rest of your lives.

We should eleminate ALL, and I mean ALL govt. subsidies...If an organization or business or lifestyle can't stand on its own, let it go the way of the dinosaur and the horse and buggy, unless you're Amish, of course.

Instead of bailing out GM, what should have happened was to tell the unions, you destroyed it, you fix it, or you can spend the rest of your miserable lives grubbing for money, like the rest of the private sector.

GM is making quite a come back. The govt is down to just 31% ownership now. If they would have let GM fail over a million jobs would have been lost.

I agree about a lot of the other subsidies though. A flat tax on a sliding scale would work and would be fair and the tax on unearned income also known as capitol gains should be the same. Problem is that the people that control Washington wouldn't ever let that happen. Right now the only reason they pay the bulk of the tax is because they have the bulk of the money. With all the breaks they get and the fact that capitol gains is only 15%, they pay nowhere near what they should.

 

[Alabama ee]

I don't think it is as easy as blaming the "rich" or what is left of the middle class for getting too many tax cuts. That is just a distraction for what is going on.

What is happening is that too many things are being made overseas and we are borrowing too much. Our clothes, food, medicine (now that is scary) and building supplies. We need to make and grow all those things here is this country.

Japan is a good example. For a while, Japan made most of their own things. Then, they moved things offshore. When that happened, they went from having a great economy into a long term recession that they are still in. Now, it is happening here. We have moved too many things offshore. Hardly anything is made in the USA. I had someone I know visit here from China. They went to the store to find a souvenir to take back that was from the USA. Guess what? He couldn't find anything! He told me with PRIDE that almost everything he found was made in China. He may have been proud of that, but it gave me a horrible feeling.

So what can we do? Buy USA when you can. Tell others to do the same. Also, levy a tax against goods coming from China. That would give us a true level playing field. You would start seeing many more businesses pop up with made in the USA. I would have tremendous pleasure in having the Chinese "help” in paying off our debt this way. Contact your state reps! Tax imports from China!!!

 

[chicksbestfriend]

Quote:
I am/was one of those middle class folks that lost my job over 16 moths ago, my job was eliminated and outsourced! Over the past 13 years, I have worked as a mental health profession and because the services rendered to people with mental health issues have been drastically reduced, I have had a difficult time securing a position in my chosen field up until 3 weeks ago, which by the way, I had been applying to the company I am now employed with for over 6 months for any and all positions posted, along with 300 other folks! In my job search, I was informed by many service providers that I no longer meet the criteria for employment in this particular field because of the tightening restrictions by medicaid and medicare on the service providers, regardless of my many years of experience! I had attempted to enroll in the local university to attain a higher level of credentialing as now required by law, only to be told that I would have to pay full tuition and there was no financial aid available to assist me as I was making too much money to qualify; never mind my income was drastically reduced over the past 16 months because of the lay off, so I can not afford to return to school! Unemployment was my Lifeline, if it wasnt for those extensions, God only knows what would of happened; probably lose my home, camping out on the beach, and eating at the soup kitchens and we are talking about someone who has paid their dues, worked hard all my life to attain the comfort and securities, (so I thought) of a good life. Today, I just heard that they were stopping all extensions to the unemployment benefits, how devestating! I also recently learned that Congress wants to eliminate mortgage interest paid as a deduction, child care taxes, and God only knows what else! Slowly, the middle class Americans are being eliminated, we make too much to qualify for any type of aid that are afforded to the lower income brackets and with all the benefits the lower income folks can attain, puts them right at the same level of income as the middle class without all the blood, sweat and tears, and with more money in their pockets, therefore pushing the middle income folks out of the picture. They werent kidding when they said for richer or poorer, but who would of thought of it in a universal sense! "They", whoever they are, are trying to convince the American people that the recession is over and is going into recovering, the financial deficit will get better, more jobs will be created, so out of ignorance, we vote them all in, only to find out that we are being deceived. We are not in recovery, we have not seen the worst, it is only the beginning of whats to come! They want to continue or make permanent tax credits for the upperclass and not the middle class so that they can continue to build new jobs (overseas) and resources (that we will have to help pay for with rising costs of utilities, taxes, etc) to build America back up, thats why they need these credits, but if they eliminate the credits for the middle income folks, and put restrictions on the types of jobs we now qualify for, who is going to drive the economy up with the new lower wages employers are offering? There will be no money left to put back into the economy as we struggle day to day to sustain our basic needs of food, clothing and shelter!

The people that used to be in power are the ones saying the economy is coming back. The fact is that right now it is recovering very slowly as in slow. The deficit is indeed killing us along with our trade policies. We'll never see the trade policies change. We will also never see the taxes on the wealthy go up.

The people outsourcing the jobs aren't worried about our economy. They are creating markets in other countries. Eventually the other economies will rise to the equivalent of 5.00 an hour and then the jobs will come back here for 5.00 an hour. We will be the ones working for slave wages to supply goods to China.

The sad fact is that the people that put this economy in the toilet are now wealthy beyond anything any of us could imagine and the people without jobs will never see the standard of living they used to enjoy again. There will of course be some exceptions, but for the most part no.

It all comes down to education now. If you aren't educated to at least a bachelors degree, better get a move on. Obama was just dreaming when he spoke about educating our people. Part of the cuts to get the deficit down will be in education. Grants will be gone as well as any kind of government backed student loans. Only the top 2% will be able to afford an education. It wouldn't surprise me if they eventually get rid of k-12 too. After all you don't need an education to be a slave.

Sorry if I sound a little pessimistic. Things are looking a little bleak for the middle class right now.

OMG!! NO, I dont want to be a slave!!!

I definitely agree that education is where it is at right now if any one of us want to maintain any certain level of comfortable living standards (while still being a slave); I predict and this is my own personal opinion, by the year 2012, if you are not holding at least a BA in some type of green job, you'll be down the road flippin hamburgers at Mickey D's, thats if you stand a chance amongst all the other slaves begging for that job. Fortunately, the new company I have attained employment with still offers tuition assistance so there is hope that I will be able to enroll back in school in the summer to continue furthering my education. I did fail to mention in my earlier post that the job I finally secured after the 16 month mad hunt, pays me substantially less than what I was accustomed to making and just a tip over what I was bringing home on umemployment! I am still trying to swallow that one and still just making it on the bills! I frantically woke up this morning looking to see if there were any indications on myself saying "made in china", so far, I have missed the mark!

Self sufficiency is the only way to go now. But in the meantime, I need to get ready for work so "they" can add to the statistic of the unemployed returning to work!

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
The people that used to be in power are the ones saying the economy is coming back. The fact is that right now it is recovering very slowly as in slow. The deficit is indeed killing us along with our trade policies. We'll never see the trade policies change. We will also never see the taxes on the wealthy go up.

The people outsourcing the jobs aren't worried about our economy. They are creating markets in other countries. Eventually the other economies will rise to the equivalent of 5.00 an hour and then the jobs will come back here for 5.00 an hour. We will be the ones working for slave wages to supply goods to China.

The sad fact is that the people that put this economy in the toilet are now wealthy beyond anything any of us could imagine and the people without jobs will never see the standard of living they used to enjoy again. There will of course be some exceptions, but for the most part no.

It all comes down to education now. If you aren't educated to at least a bachelors degree, better get a move on. Obama was just dreaming when he spoke about educating our people. Part of the cuts to get the deficit down will be in education. Grants will be gone as well as any kind of government backed student loans. Only the top 2% will be able to afford an education. It wouldn't surprise me if they eventually get rid of k-12 too. After all you don't need an education to be a slave.

Sorry if I sound a little pessimistic. Things are looking a little bleak for the middle class right now.

OMG!! NO, I dont want to be a slave!!!

I definitely agree that education is where it is at right now if any one of us want to maintain any certain level of comfortable living standards (while still being a slave); I predict and this is my own personal opinion, by the year 2012, if you are not holding at least a BA in some type of green job, you'll be down the road flippin hamburgers at Mickey D's, thats if you stand a chance amongst all the other slaves begging for that job. Fortunately, the new company I have attained employment with still offers tuition assistance so there is hope that I will be able to enroll back in school in the summer to continue furthering my education. I did fail to mention in my earlier post that the job I finally secured after the 16 month mad hunt, pays me substantially less than what I was accustomed to making and just a tip over what I was bringing home on umemployment! I am still trying to swallow that one and still just making it on the bills! I frantically woke up this morning looking to see if there were any indications on myself saying "made in china", so far, I have missed the mark!

Self sufficiency is the only way to go now. But in the meantime, I need to get ready for work so "they" can add to the statistic of the unemployed returning to work!

Sounds like you got a good attitude. Keep your chin up. Lot of people starting over from scratch.

 

[redhen]

So they're stopping unemployment extensions?

 

[Dunkopf]

At this time it's being used as a political football. Just like the last extension. The party of NO is saying they will pass the extension if their are equal cuts made in some other social program. Yes they are standing firm against raising the taxes on the top 2% by 3% on taxable income. That's income after all deductions have been taken out. That's the level they were at during the Clinton administration when over 27 million jobs were created. During Bush when the taxes were lowered we lost 8 million jobs. Makes you wonder about the good ole trickle down theory.

I think the pubs just want to wait until they are in control so they can act like they did the public a favor. After all that is 2 months from now and most people will forget by then that they are the ones that voted against it yesterday. Of course that will mean that a number of people will have a total financial collapse by then. THEY don't care though.

 

[Q9]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

Sorry, Q9 the Microsoft issue is a no-brainer. How is Microsoft a monopoly? Well, maybe the feds can explain it in their landmark Anti-Trust case against Microsoft. Microsoft lost this case by the way and had several segments broken up and paid hearty fines.

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm

Later Microsoft was sued by the BBC for the same thing - different law, same anti-trust intent. Same result, Microsoft lost again. Finding of fact that they had used strong arm tactics such as cornering a market pressuring suppliers and illegally using unfair trade practices to prevent other products that competed with theirs from reaching the market. They also filed massive patent suits against people creating innovation that could threaten them. Most of the suits die when the person who made the innovation does not have endless money or time to duke it out with microsoft.

Does not matter if you respect Microsoft or Bill Gates. Does not matter how much money Bill gives away. What matters is that once he got big enough he used his very size to stifle competition.

Shall we address the ongoing actions against Google for the same things? How about the case moving into the FCC against the Google/Comcast suppression of internet access? That one may not go anywhere as the new congress is not addressing net neutrality at all claiming that the net is not broken and the market can handle it. But, once a site like BYC has to pay hefty fees to have any possibility of turning up in a search the net will become a much more pasteurized place.

So what you're telling me is that any company that is big and effective - and popular - is a monopoly? Last time I checked, a monopoly was a single company with no competition that raises its prices to insane levels, being made possible by the aforementioned lack of competition. Microsoft is not, and has never been, anything close to a monopoly. "Stifle" competition? So you think that if other companies aren't as good, they should still make it? I'm not sure I follow your line of thought here.​

 

[Organics North]

I have WHAT in my yard? :

Sorry, Q9 the Microsoft issue is a no-brainer. How is Microsoft a monopoly? Well, maybe the feds can explain it in their landmark Anti-Trust case against Microsoft. Microsoft lost this case by the way and had several segments broken up and paid hearty fines.

http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm

Later Microsoft was sued by the BBC for the same thing - different law, same anti-trust intent. Same result, Microsoft lost again. Finding of fact that they had used strong arm tactics such as cornering a market pressuring suppliers and illegally using unfair trade practices to prevent other products that competed with theirs from reaching the market. They also filed massive patent suits against people creating innovation that could threaten them. Most of the suits die when the person who made the innovation does not have endless money or time to duke it out with microsoft.

Does not matter if you respect Microsoft or Bill Gates. Does not matter how much money Bill gives away. What matters is that once he got big enough he used his very size to stifle competition.

Shall we address the ongoing actions against Google for the same things? How about the case moving into the FCC against the Google/Comcast suppression of internet access? That one may not go anywhere as the new congress is not addressing net neutrality at all claiming that the net is not broken and the market can handle it. But, once a site like BYC has to pay hefty fees to have any possibility of turning up in a search the net will become a much more pasteurized place.

Yep..
Walmart does it in every mid size town, Taco bell, Mcdonalds, starbucks the big chains, that pay workers min wage never hire full time..
IMO this is the bane of America.

Did you know to sell at walmart, it is actually consignment.. You are not paid until the goods are sold.. So they say send us 1,000,000 gadgets, and if they sell you will be paid... No way small business can do that, they can not afford it.

I say tax the heck out of interstate multi national companies.. If you conservative weird ooos

do not want to invest it in education, then give the revenue as breaks for small mom and pop shops... (When you are a business owner you at least have a chance at making a living... Min wage, and 30 hours a week working for a big chain will get you no where..

Personally I find it disgusting... Darn people we owe nothing to the wealthy multi nationals, they owe us.. Our blood and sweat labor built them, our pocketbooks support them... We own them...

Not to be offensive, but I find it darn right silly to not demand change for the working class...

ON​

 

[Q9]

Quote:
Yep..
Walmart does it in every mid size town, Taco bell, Mcdonalds, starbucks the big chains, that pay workers min wage never hire full time..
IMO this is the bane of America.

Did you know to sell at walmart, it is actually consignment.. You are not paid until the goods are sold.. So they say send us 1,000,000 gadgets, and if they sell you will be paid... No way small business can do that, they can not afford it.

I say tax the heck out of interstate multi national companies.. If you conservative weird ooos

do not want to invest it in education, then give the revenue as breaks for small mom and pop shops... (When you are a business owner you at least have a chance at making a living... Min wage, and 30 hours a week working for a big chain will get you no where..

Personally I find it disgusting... Darn people we owe nothing to the wealthy multi nationals, they owe us.. Our blood and sweat labor built them, our pocketbooks support them... We own them...

Not to be offensive, but I find it darn right silly to not demand change for the working class...

ON

Neither of us owes the other, actually. We take our business to the corporations in exchange for affordable goods. Besides, wouldn't you agree that working for low wages is better than not working at all? Let's face it, these corporations are major employers, and if it weren't for them, most of America would be hard-pressed to find a job. Of course you don't go anywhere on minimum wage - it's what you use to save for advancement. I don't plan to make a career of hauling 50 pound bags of chicken feed, but I've gotta start somewhere, don't I?